fighting evil by moonlight at Animation celebration! (animation celebration part one)

I was very fortunate to attend Animation Celebration in Lewisville, Texas this weekend. Normally I just arrive and   search the isles looking for comics, toys. Not to mention, spending endless amounts of time waiting in autograph lines and panels and fawning over the hard work of the talented cosplayers I see. This weekend offered up an entirely new experience because I was fortunate to be on the other side of the convention as a volunteer.

the experience gave me an entirely new prospective on the super-secret workings behind the scenes. I was in charge of the green room one minute and filling my walker with snacks and beverages the next.  Today I felt like I ran a 5k over the weekend., every time someone needed something I happily got it for them, I mean how often do you get to assist amazing voice actors and comic book artists? As a con goer, I never really thought about the volunteers before but after this weekend I understand how a volunteer can make all the difference and make a very chaotic event run smoothly.  The troubleshooting staff was amazing and I feel as though I made some great new friends. So if you’ve ever volunteered at a con, thank you!

The highlight of my weekend was meeting Linda Valentine and Toby Proctor from Sailor moon.  When I met them,  felt like a twelve year old girl again and shared with them how the show had such a great impact on my life. I shared that when I was in middle school , Sailor moon was my gateway to make friends with the girls that worked with me on the school paper. Anyone who knows me in real life knows how introverted and shy I was in those days. I would always race home to watch it in the afternoons and then talk about it while typing up articles to be published. Although my time on the school newspaper didn’t last long, I credit show with helping me make the friendships that came out of it.

Linda Ballantyne was one of the most down to earth celebrities I’ve ever met. After  I  paid for my personal autographs (she was only charging 10 dollars can you believe it?) I told her that I was going to get her to sign something for the suicide prevention walk that my campus is hosting (see last post for more information) when I went to pay her for the things for the walk she refused to take my money and gave me the prints.  I cannot express how amazed I was by her generosity and hope to ruse them to raise money and awareness for our cause. It really touched me that she took the time to sign stuff for our school.  It always amazing when your favorite superheroes transition to real life role models. 

In part two of this post, I will be doing a write up on my favorite cosplayers at the con and talking about my "convention haul" so check back for that!